I’ve been using Microsoft’s latest version of Office (2007) for quite some time now, but I frequently run into people using the previous version (2003) that cannot read the files I produce. With 2007, Microsoft changed the default format of the file to be based on XML for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I like that it is text-based, but it’s very hard to build this kind of forward-compatibility in to a product. As a result, most people can’t read the newer format.

Fortunately, Microsoft has released a compatibility pack that allows users of previous versions as far back as version 2002 to read the new formats. For a while I would just publish versions of my files in the old .doc, .xls, or .ppt format, but now that Office 2007 has been out for a while, I don’t think it’s too much to ask to have people at least install compatibility pack, even if they are unable to upgrade.

Resources: